As David so succinctly mentioned earlier, salt is poppin' a cap in our national ass! And while I generally agree with everything he has to say on the subject (although there is no reason in the world to do anything but lightly butter, add a smidgen of grated parmesan or THIS to steamed broccoli), I do think he left one important thing out.

I went to a very highly regarded restaurant the other night—the name of this particular eatery is irrelevant, because nearly every high-end joint in Portland is guilty of this—and my food was wildly over-salted before it arrived at my table. Everything else about this particular meal was great, except for the overabundance of salt. My parents—thankfully—never included very much salt in my diet as a kid, which is great because I'm not addicted to it now. On the other hand, now I have what I suppose would be called a "salt sensitivity" and get raging headaches after eating these virtual salt blocks that are delivered to my table. So in closing, let me reiterate....

That's why a little shaker of it is on the table, right?